Fuck u Steve Martin. (The actual title). In 2019, the pandemic and financial uncertainty interrupted my studio practice. That is not Steve’s fault. I don’t think. Stuck at home, I decided to read Steve Martin’s autobiography. At the time, before my all-consuming hatred developed, I really admired him. Comedy, drama, music, an eye for art- he excelled at everything. I wanted the recipe. But masters never overtly reveal their secrets. If you are lucky they may divulge their teachers. That’s often the sauce. Steve Martin credited Lewis Carroll’s Syllogistic Logic as a major influence in his development. This recommendation is the germ of my hatred for Steve Martin.

I immediately ordered the book Symbolic Logic. My first thought was “what the fuck is this?” How in the world will I make sense of this gibberish? I needed help. I figured I was missing some foundational knowledge. So I started with Aristotle's Traditional Logic. I developed a basic understanding and then went back to Lewis Carroll. After a couple of painstaking weeks I realized these are incompatible methodologies. Did Steve Martin warn us about this? Noooooo. Why? Because just like my Nana and her cooking lessons, when it comes to sharing the secret sauce, he’s a dick. Nana (God rest her soul) would say the most important ingredient in her roast chicken was love. Bullshit. It was a very particular measured spice that she intentionally withheld. That’s why my chicken sucks. Well I taught myself Carroll’s system. Once you understand his method you can easily see how logic and its fallacies can explain comedy. More specifically, how Carroll inspired the ridiculous nature of Steve Martin’s early routines. But to advise an unsuspecting audience to look at Lewis Carroll without any warning or hint as to how to learn it, is madness. I'm sure Steve has had many laughs with his pals about it. I imagine him snickering to sleep thinking about the tentacles of that nugget. Well, Steve should know I learned it. And it all makes sense. But he owes me a year of my life. This is a painting that came from that ordeal. While I am no master, I will do as masters do and tell you that to understand this painting study Steve Martin. The rest is among me, Carroll, God and Steve if he has the nerve to show his face around me.